


Midas

by bumblebeesknees



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Does Not Turn Into a Statue, Canon Compliant, Curses, Episode: s02e18 Awake Arise Or Be Forever Fallen, M/M, True Love's Kiss, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-12 00:36:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11725857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bumblebeesknees/pseuds/bumblebeesknees
Summary: Magnus gets tangled up in a spell that has everything he touches, living or not, turn to gold. Thankfully, the key to breaking any fairy curse is true love’s kiss. Alec would be the simple solution to this dilemma – except that despite his best efforts he and Magnus are still not together, an uncrossable line drawn on the sand between them.-“Is anything different for you now?” Alec asks quietly. “If I tell you again that I’m sorry, if I ask you again to give us a shot, that I really think we can make it work – will that make a difference?”





	Midas

**Author's Note:**

> if you've read any of my other stories, you'll know that i generally don't like unhappiness between magnus and alec. i don't have a lot to say to preface this except that post-2x18 i have a lot of questions and general confusion and frustration. i do have a lot of trust in the writers of this show and i think it'll be resolved satisfactorily. that being said, as the tagging implies nothing is actually resolved in this fic and it in fact leaves the situation a little bit worse than where the episode left it off. 
> 
> not beta'd because i wanted to post this before 2x19 (though nothing in this story should necessarily contradict future episodes) and [partnerincrime](https://archiveofourown.org/users/partnerincrime) is on a weekend cottage trip. however, i would like to thank her anyways for reading this over on her phone and reassuring me that it's in good enough shape to go. <3

The door swings open, accompanied by the tell-tale crackle of magic. 

Alec steps inside carefully. It’s strange to be back at the loft, Alec being all is too aware of the difference in the extent of his welcome. He keeps his jacket on instead of throwing it over the back of a chair; he waits in the entrance hallway for Magnus to invite him further in. 

Unsurprisingly, it’s Catarina who comes out instead. 

“Alec,” she greets, walking up to him. Alec nods toward her in response, his neck feeling hot under his collar and pulse rapid like a hummingbird. This is stupid, he thinks. This isn’t a fight-or-flight scenario where he needs adrenalin to keep his senses keen. There’s no enemy here. There’s no danger. “Thank you for getting here so quickly.”

“Of course,” he says, following her into the living room. There hadn’t been anything more important, not when he received a cryptic call from Catarina saying that Magnus was in trouble, and Alec was probably the only person who could help. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with Magnus?”

It’s Magnus himself who sardonically answers, “What’s wrong with me is that I’ve been cursed, Alexander.”

Alec stares at him. Magnus is lounging elegantly on the sofa, legs crossed and a golden martini glass clasped between his long fingers. It’s not the first time Alec’s seen him since they parted, but it _is_ the first time he’s seen him here, at his home, where he should be most at comfortable. 

Magnus doesn’t look at ease. He looks beautiful, in his long burgundy tunic and the tangle of chains around his neck, the smoky black shadow smudged over his eyes – but his gaze is hard, and there’s something pinched at the corners of his mouth. It slowly dawns on Alec that Catarina may not have told Magnus that she reached out to him. That Magnus may not have wanted her to. 

Well, it’s too late for that now. 

“Okay,” says Alec slowly. He takes a seat on the edge of the other sofa. He takes off his jacket then, places it carefully over the arm. 

It’s hot in here. Alec’s heart is hammering, and sweat is already starting to gather at his hairline. He asks, “What exactly does this curse do?”

“It turns everything he touches into gold,” says Catarina. That explains why Magnus is drinking from a golden glass, then. And the various other items around the room that were definitely made of something else the last time Alec was here. “Classic fairy bullshit. At first glance it might not seem so bad, but I literally mean _everything_ his skin comes in contact with turns to gold. Except for what he was wearing when the spell first hit him.”

“Shamefully this is my fourth day in this outfit,” says Magnus. “If only that was the worst of my problems. Do you notice anything different around here, Alexander?”

Alec frowns because – yes, he has noticed something missing. “Your cats?”

“Got it in one.” Magnus downs the rest of his drink and naturally, it fills right back up again. Alec gives the glass a disapproving look. “Those spoiled creatures don’t normally give me the time of day but the one time when I want to be left alone–”

He cuts himself off. 

Quietly, Catarina finishes for him, “They turned into statues. It’s – it’s eerie. I don’t know how to describe it. But this idiot would’ve kept it quiet longer if something like this hadn’t happened, so. Silver linings.”

Magnus looks so upset that Alec aches to reach forward and hold his hand. Abruptly, he realizes that he can’t – not just because they’re not like that anymore, but Alec will turn into a statue if he does. 

Helplessly, he says, “I’m sorry.”

Something about Alec’s words has Magnus loosening, sinking down further into the cushions. He sighs and says, “No, it’s not your fault at all.” 

Unsure why Catarina would think Alec would be useful in this situation, he turns to her and asks, “Why am I here? I mean, I’ll do anything I can to help but – I really don’t think I know more about this curse than you two.”

Magnus grows still. When it becomes obvious he’s not going to say anything, Catarina steps in.

“There’s one tried and true way to break any fairy curse, Alec,” she says gently. “And breaking it will reverse all of the effects."

“Okay,” says Alec. “Uh, that sounds great. How can I help?”

“It’s very easy but also very complicated,” says Catarina. “You see, to break a fairy’s curse, what you need is true love’s kiss.”

-

 

Life after Magnus leaves him is pretty much the same as life before Magnus found him, except that it’s both better and worse. Alec’s always had a hundred and ten things that demands his attention and now they’re in the middle of a war and more and more frequently it seems like he and his siblings are the only ones who aren’t willing to see the entire downworld get slaughtered in the crossfire. There’s strategies to form, enemies to pursue, politics to play, demons to hunt. There’s Izzy and Jace and Max to take care of. Clary, even. His parents.

The only real change is apparent at nights. His room at the Institute has barely been used in the past few weeks, and it’s – it’s strange. Cold and uncomfortable. It’s not like the Clave pinches pennies when figuring out bedding, but there had been something indulgent about Magnus’ silk sheets and goosefeather pillows. Soft against Alec’s skin, wrapped around him like his body’s something more than weapon. Something to be treated with tenderness.

Alec thinks about this, thinks about the last time Magnus had kissed him had been before their dinner together in Alec’s office, the way Magnus had kept his eyes closed and was still smiling when Alec had moved back to look at his face. The last time Magnus touched him had been to caress his cheek, right before he walked away.

“I’m going to give you two some time,” says Catarina, squeezing Alec’s shoulder as she goes. 

With her departure, the silence in the loft becomes unavoidable. Oppressive. Magnus doesn’t look at him, and Alec opens his mouth to speak multiple times but finds himself lost for words in every try. 

Eventually, Magnus says, “It’s fine if you want to go.”

Thankfully, that’s something Alec can respond to without having to think about it. “I don’t.”

Then, more hesitantly, “This true love thing is real?”

“Yes,” says Magnus. “I’ve seen it be used to break spells a hundred times more powerful than this. It’s very rare, though. Magic like that has to be.”

Alec doesn’t know quite what to say to that, but Magnus continues so he doesn’t have to.

“You didn’t know what you were walking into when you came here tonight, Alexander.” He sounds worn out. “You don’t – this kind of thing isn’t your responsibility anymore. Neither me nor Catarina is going to think any less of you if you don’t want to risk this.” 

“Risk what?” Alec doesn’t mean to sound sharp except – yes, he does. If Magnus is trying to imply something, he can come right out and say it. 

Looking incredibly tired, Magnus sets down his refilled martini glass on the side table. “It’s not that simple.”

“It _is_ that simple,” argues Alec. “A lot of things are that simple.”

“It was inappropriate of her to even ask you.”

“No it wasn’t,” says Alec. Maybe Magnus’ words were meant to comfort, but it leaves him wounded instead. “Not if she was looking for someone who loves you.”

Magnus draws in a sharp breath. “Alexander.”

“I have one question,” says Alec, and Magnus must think he deserves to ask it because he stays silent, stares at Alec with those deep, luminous eyes. “Did you know Catarina called me?”

“Yes,” replies Magnus.

“Did you try to stop her?”

At this, Magnus looks away. 

“Yes,” he repeats and something inside Alec flinches, grows small.

Still, he has to ask. “Why?”

“Because she and I both know that out of everyone I’ve met in the last four hundred years,” says Magnus, “you’re the only person who has any chance of ever setting me free from this.” He sounds distant, fingers curling into a fist. “Maybe _I_ didn’t want to risk it.” 

“Oh.” 

“I didn’t want to risk that it wouldn’t work,” explains Magnus, as though Alec had said nothing. “Because then you’d be lost to me, and I’d be left in this world knowing that even what I had with you wasn’t enough.” 

Alec can’t listen to this anymore. It’s like all of him has been scraped raw, all his nerve endings exposed. That Magnus could think this, when Alec’s done nothing but try and love him in every way he knows how. How can there be doubt about what Alec feels? 

Unless it’s not about what _Alec_ feels. 

“Enough of this,” says Alec abruptly, getting to his feet. There’s no use thinking about it this way. He’s still going to try, and one way or another they’re going to find out something at the end of it. “Stand up.”

Magnus flinches as Alec walks over to him and his hand grazes against the sofa. In front of Alec’s eyes, the fabric shimmers gold before hardening into metal. Its strange and almost frightening to watch. 

It doesn’t change Alec’s mind.

“Damn it,” mutters Magnus, looking forlorn. “I liked this couch.”

“Magnus,” says Alec. Magnus looks up at him through his long, thick lashes, and Alec’s heart’s been one giant bruise since that night at the Institute but all at once Alec is reminded of how he got there in the first place. How it had started with him falling in love.

“I love you,” says Alec, trying to speak around the pressure in his throat. He might as well be holding the fucking Soul Sword, the catalyst to this grief, the way the truth is ripped out of him. He didn’t think it was possible he’d ever want to shy away from Magnus, and yet here he is, every instinct telling him to be cautious but Alec bulldozing through it anyway. “And if you still love me, then this will work. Do you still love me?”

“Alexander–”

“Just answer the question, Magnus.”

“Yes,” says Magnus, and he sounds as wrecked as Alec has been feeling for the past weeks. “You know I do. None of what happened was about me not loving you.”

“Okay,” says Alec. He doesn’t understand why they are where they are if this is true, but relief and tentative hope blooms in his chest. “There’s nothing at risk here at all.”

“ _You_ are,” says Magnus. “I can’t watch you turn cold, Alexander. I can’t. Not when you don’t owe me anything.”

“Fine,” says Alec. “Then don’t look. Stand up and close your eyes.”

Magnus slowly stands up, crossing his arms across his chest. It stings, even though Alec knows it’s only because Magnus doesn’t want to accidentally hurt him. Except Alec doesn’t know that for sure – he and Magnus don’t kiss anymore. 

And yet Magnus still looks at Alec like Alec will be destroying him if he doesn’t do this right. As far as Alec himself is concerned, he knows that it will take a long time for him to recover if this doesn’t work. Not just because he has no idea what’ll happen until they find some way to reverse the effects of the curse on him. If it doesn’t work – maybe it’s for the best that he turns into a statue for a while. Give himself some time to not think about what it means.

Magnus’ tunic is a thin but effective barrier between his skin and Alec’s. Still, he visibly grows anxious as Alec slowly, carefully reaches for his shoulders and curls his hand around them. When nothing happens and Alec remains flesh and bone, the tension in Magnus’ body just grows. 

Alec steps closer, runs his hands comfortingly along Magnus’ arms. In response, Magnus takes a deep breath and lets his eyes drift shut. He tilts his chin up, just so. Alec is gripped with a longing so vast that it makes his legs weak. This is how Magnus always looked, when he waited for Alec to greet him with a kiss. 

For one infinitely long second, the sight makes Alec hesitate. The last time he’d kissed Magnus, he hadn’t known that it would be the last time he’d kiss him. This time, Alec has warning. He’s going into this with his eyes wide open. Even if it works, it doesn’t mean Magnus will want to get back together. 

Alec has to be prepared for this. That he will kiss Magnus in the comforting warmth of what had become, for Alec, their home. The ground will shake under his feet and and then he’ll have to walk out of there, as though this isn’t ripping that wound wide open again. 

Not that it had ever healed. Not that this changes what Alec will do. No matter what their relationship is and what it becomes, Alec loves this man. He’s not going to leave him stranded in these strange and terrifying waters, unable to find the comfort of touch – even if it’s not Alec’s. Not when he can potentially help. 

All Alec has to do is break his own heart one more time. Thankfully, it’s something he’s used to.

Wanting to hold Magnus as he does this, Alec let’s go, for just a moment, to pull his sleeves until the ends of them are curling over the tips of his fingers. Magnus’ breath hitches when Alec reaches for him, this time to cradle his face. Magnus’ mouth parts, almost unconsciously.

 _I love you,_ thinks Alec, repeating his previous words. _And if you still love me, this will work._

With the kind of fearlessness that he’s has gotten used to since he’s met this man in front of him, Alec leans in and presses his lips to Magnus’.

-

 

That time at the wedding, Alec had felt invincible. There was terror clawing up his throat, yes, but there was also this – this boldness. A courage he had never felt before overtaking it, maybe by an inch, maybe by a mile. That kiss had been the rising sun, its rays burning through the clouds and setting all of Alec’s world alight. 

But this kiss.

Alec feels this kiss beyond the boundaries of his consciousness. He physically feels the weight of it coalesce into a ball and burn hot in his chest, squeezing smaller and smaller into a single and infinitely dense point before it bursts outward, sending a wave of golden magic traveling outward with him and Magnus at the epicentre. For an endless, glorious second, Alec is one with each and every molecule in existence. Everything that the magic travels through in its journey to reverse the curse, Alec has an awareness of it for the tiniest fraction of time. 

And yet he doesn’t stop being aware of Magnus, of the heat of his mouth and the way his heart's hammering in his chest. As though it’s trying to break out of its cage, made from the curving bones of Magnus’ ribs, and join Alec’s own in a new home.

Alec knows the exact moment when Magnus realizes that the curse has broken because Magnus gasps and uncrosses his arms. He parts his mouth and Alec responds to the press of Magnus’ tongue on instinct, opens up to him as easily as always. Magnus’ hands move to grasp at Alec’s hips and the tip of his fingers move up and slip underneath the hem of Alec’s shirt, stroke at the skin of his waist. When Alec shivers, Magnus splays out his hands fully and runs them down the broad expanse of Alec’s back. 

Magnus’ palms are hot and the drag of his rings must be leaving dents in Alec’s skin. It’s like he’s trying to touch as much of Alec as he can without letting go. If they were still together, Alec would know what to do next – tug off his shirt and help Magnus with his own, let Magnus get his fill on Alec’s skin after going days without being able to touch a single person he loves. 

But they’re not together. Alec doesn’t know what they are.

For the first time since he’s been with Magnus, Alec finds that it hurts to hold him. There’s no sweetness to it. Even the flare of desire from having Magnus’ hands roaming over his body doesn’t have the strength to fight against this terrible, hollow longing. He wonders, almost absently, how a feeling so empty can have him buckling under the weight.

Alec breaks the kiss and pulls away. 

For a while, the only sound in the room is just their rapid, shallow breathing. Magnus blinks open his golden eyes and there's a distant quality to it. His lips are just the slightest bit apart, red and forbidden. His face is still cradled between Alec’s hands. The way he looks at Alec is–

It’s too much. It too much, thinks Alec, letting his arms drop. He takes one step back, then two, and then as many more as he needs to until he reaches the sofa he was at before and sits back down. Alec hadn’t realized how tight his chest had gotten, how difficult it suddenly feels to fill his lungs with air. He’d thought that it was just the kiss – just Magnus, stealing his breath away as always.

He was mostly right. It _was_ Magnus and it _was_ the kiss. But not in the way he had been used to. Not in the way he had wanted it to be.

They’re silent, until Magnus finally says in a cracked and broken voice, “It worked.”

The disbelief in his words makes Alec frown, distracts him from his thoughts. “You didn’t think it would?”

“It didn’t the last time,” murmurs Magnus absently, staring down at his hands. His words seem to catch up to him a moment later because Magnus freezes, gaze snapping up to meet Alec’s. 

Confused, Alec asks, “What d’you mean?” 

“Nothing,” says Magnus.

“It sounds like something,” Alec says, but then stops himself from pressing further. Magnus doesn’t owe him any explanation. Especially since it’s for no other reason than to settle his curiosity.

Magnus’ eyes soften when he seems to realize that Alec doesn’t know what to do, what the right way to behave is in this situation. Maybe Alec would be better at it he understood why they are where they are, but Alec doesn’t, no matter how many times he plays it in his head.

Magnus opens his mouth, possibly gearing up to explain but all at once Alec is incredibly tired. The adrenalin that had spilled into his veins as he had prepared himself for being close with Magnus in that way again has been burned up. 

“It’s all right.” Alec closes his eyes. “I don’t need to know. I’m just – I’m glad that you’re better. You should go and give your cats a hug.”

“Alexander,” says Magnus, and when Alec looks at him it’s to find Magnus standing there and staring at Alec, an unreadable expression on his face. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” says Alec, getting to his feet. He pulls on his jacket and starts to walk back toward the foyer. His job here’s done and he needs to be out of here for multiple reasons. “You can – you can call me any time for help, you understand? I’ll get in touch with Catarina, tell her that it worked.”

He’s almost at the door when Magnus speaks.

“You don’t have to go,” he says quietly. “I would – I would like it if you didn’t.” He pauses, as though gathering his courage. “Do you want to stay?”

Alec freezes in his tracks.

Does Alec want to stay.

Does Alec want to stay in this place that had become more familiar to him in the past few weeks than his room at the Institute? Magnus’ loft, that has the strange and comforting scent of bottled sage and vanilla candles and underlying all of it – the scent of the air before a lightning storm, the essence of Magnus’ magic?

Alec fell in love with Magnus between these walls. This is where he found parts of himself that he didn’t even know he was capable of having. Some of Alec’s most treasured memories were made here – falling asleep on Magnus’ couch without noticing, safe and comfortable; waking up in between the golden sheets of Magnus’ bed with Magnus himself pressed against his side; their home base whenever they return from yet another adventure abroad, Tokyo or Prague or Paris. 

Their home. Full stop.

The question isn’t whether he wants to stay.

“Yes,” says Alec, and the admission doesn’t cost him anything at all. This part is nothing that Magnus doesn’t already know. He turns around, and faces Magnus as he continues, “But not – not if nothing’s changed for you.” 

He almost couldn’t kiss Magnus knowing it would be a one time thing. This is worse. He can’t stay here, be back into the place he feels the safest and most loved knowing it’s just for one night. “Not if it’s just for tonight. I can’t – I can’t do that.”

Magnus grows quiet. 

“Is anything different for you now?” Alec asks quietly. “If I tell you again that I’m sorry, if I ask you again to give us a shot, that I really think we can make it work – will that make a difference?”

Something in Magnus’ face twists and for one unbelievable moment, Alec thinks Magnus will say, _yes, everything’s changed. Even the universe knows what we have here is real and true._

But Magnus only curls in his shoulders and crosses his arms across his chest. He shakes his head. 

“No,” says Magnus, closing his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Alec forces the air to escape his lungs in slow, steady increments. It’s the only way to stop his chest from feeling like its collapsing. 

There’s something that must be broken in Alec’s wiring because he knows he won’t ever understand. For Alec love is salvation. He thinks of everything that’s happened in the past few months that had slayed him through the core: Jace and Clary stealing the mortal cup; Jace throwing Alec’s fractured heart at his face; Magnus figuring out the truth behind Izzy’s addiction; his mother trying to execute a kill order on his brother.

All mistakes that Alec had felt gutted over. All mistakes he’d forgiven the second they had reached out. Alec is viscerally aware that his family’s more integral to him than the oxygen breathing life into his body and that other than Magnus, they are his only experience with love, a force so strong that it burrows deep into the marrow of his bones and binds into each new cell created inside of him. 

Perhaps the critical mistake Alec had made was falling too fast and hard and irrevocably. It’s only been a matter of weeks and yet here Alec is, holding Magnus to the same expectations as he has with his mother and sister and parabatai, unable to imagine ever cutting ties with them. He let the walls of Magnus’ home become his home, let the Institute be a place that he only goes to for work. He let the enormity of his love for Magnus spill into the territory of his love for his family. Something unconditional, something permanent.

This isn’t a normal. This isn’t fair. This can’t be the way to love someone he’s only known for a matter of weeks. Alec may feel like he has known Magnus his whole life – that perhaps, in some ways, his life hadn’t started until Magnus crashed into it – but that doesn’t make it reality. 

Reality is that as much as Alec's found safety here, it still only took a single trip to pack up everything he had in Magnus’ place and move them out.

At last Alec finds it in himself to say, “Okay.”

Uncertainly, Magnus asks, “Okay?”

“Nothing’s changed,” says Alec. “It’s for the best that I don’t.”

“Alexander.” Magnus’ voice is soft, regretful. It makes everything worse. “Please.”

“Please what, Magnus?” says Alec, grief and frustration warring inside him. It takes all of Alec’s efforts to keep those emotions at bay and as a result, he loses control over something else instead. 

“I made a mistake,” he says. “I couldn’t figure out how to tell you something and you can’t forgive me. You can’t trust me. You won’t believe that I’m on your side. That I want the same things you want, even if I went about it the wrong way. It’s unforgivable, what I did, because if it wasn’t you wouldn’t have walked away.”

Alec pauses only to take a deep, fortifying breath. He curls his fingers into fists to stop them from shaking, digs his nails into his palms to ground him. “What else is there to say?” 

Magnus presses his lips into a thin line. “It’s not like that.”

“Then tell me what it’s like,” snaps Alec. It’s a mistake, letting his temper out like this – it just opens the door to every other awful thing that lies in his Pandora’s box of a heart, hope the most awful of them all. “Because if it’s not that, then I don’t know what it is.” 

After their disastrous first date, Alec had had a moment of doubt – maybe we’re too different, he had said. _I don’t know what I’m doing,_ he had meant. _I might be new to you but love like this is new to me. You can do better._

But then Alec had thought, _I can be better._ If there’s one thing Alec has going for him, it’s sheer perseverance. Dedication. Being willing to put in the effort to make something work. And ever since he’d turned back from that door, he’s never once thought to let Magnus go.

I’m all for effort, Magnus had said. _You’re worth it_ , he had meant. 

Not worth it any more, thinks Alec, and it’s the worst sort of victory when Magnus looks away and proves him right. It’s not a victory at all. 

“Okay,” says Alec, getting sick of the word. He’d already known this to be true, so it shouldn’t feel like getting flayed open all over again.

“I love you,” says Magnus, tired. Like it’s a burden, not a joy or a gift. “I love you, and we both have decisions to make that’s bigger than our relationship. I don’t – I don’t see other things when you’re there. I don’t think clearly.”

“Is it easier for you now to make those decisions?” 

Why is Alec continuing this conversation instead of gracefully accepting Magnus’ careful responses for what they are? Why can’t he let this go? 

“Because let me tell you,” he continues, “not being with you hasn’t made anything easier for me. It’s made it harder. I haven’t and won’t stop caring about what happens to you. I still make the same decision I’d have made otherwise. I still think about how it’ll affect you. All being apart has done is – all it’s done is have me miss you.” 

“I miss you too,” says Magnus, eyes wet. 

Perhaps that should make Alec feel better, but it doesn’t, and all Alec hears are the words Magnus hasn’t said. 

“But it _is_ easier for you.” 

Somehow it’s this that ends up being the knock-out punch, has Alec physically reeling. It simultaneously makes all the sense in the world and none at all – how can this be true unless Magnus thinks that it’s a zero-sum dilemma, him versus Alec, where for one of them to get what they want the other has to lose? How can this be true if Magnus still loves him, which they’ve proven he irrefutably does? 

How can this be easier for him unless he’s not thinking about Alec at all?

Magnus must see something change on Alec’s face because he is suddenly reaching toward Alec. Alec almost feels a phantom caress.

Very carefully he says, “Whatever you’re thinking, Alexander – I can promise you that none of this has been _easy_ for me, not for a second.” 

“That’s not what I said,” says Alec, running a hand through his hair. He needs to get out of here. He’ll come running back the second Magnus needs him, but for right now – right now he needs to go. “It’s fine. It doesn’t matter. I’ll – I’ll see you later, Magnus.”

Magnus starts to walk toward him but Alec’s already turning the handle of the door. If Magnus touches him right now, Alec thinks he really will turn cold all the way through. Nothing as useful and beautiful as gold though – just hard, durable stone.

“Alec,” says Magnus. He sounds worried. “Don’t go. We shouldn’t leave things like this.”

“We’re not leaving it like anything,” says Alec, weary. “Everything’s still the same as it was an hour ago, a week ago.” Except that it’s not. “I’m just – I just need to get back to the Institute.”

Magnus, to his credit, doesn’t look like he believes Alec. There’s doubt etched into his features, but he doesn’t stop Alec from stepping out into the hallway, doesn’t stop him from pulling the door shut firmly behind him. 

_Okay,_ thinks Alec. _It’s okay. It’s nothing you didn’t already know._

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading and please feel free to drop a comment to share your thoughts!


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